It’s hard to know what to do with your life when your father is the Kingpin of crime. Richard Fisk was faced with just such a dilemma.
Forever torn between filial love and personal hatred, Richard Fisk has dedicated his life to trying to mess with his father’s organization.
Fisk originally disguised himself as the Schemer. The Schemer seemed to want to take over organized crime, but it soon became clear that he was only interested in disrupting the activities of the Kingpin.
Major Story Arcs
Rose
Richard as Rose first came to Spider-Man’s attention when he bribed a football player to botch his games. When he refused, Rose ordered to kidnap his brother. When Spider-Man raided one of Rose’s warehouses, Rose hired Puma to kill him. However, when the Kingpin discovered this, he ordered Rose to drop the contract. Rose then meets the Hobgoblin, and they form a partnership in agreement to attempt to overthrow the Kingpin. With Hobgoblin’s support, Rose’s criminal influence grew substantially. The Hobgoblin used the Rose to kidnap Liz Osborn to further his own endeavors, however Spider-Man saved her from the kidnapping. The Rose also updated the Hobgoblin’s arsenal.
Gang War
When Jack O’Lantern tried to take over the Hobgoblin’s criminal influence, the Rose warned the Hobgoblin in hopes they would kill each other. When the Kingpin disappeared from New York, causing gang wars in the city, Rose took advantage of Wilson Fisk’s absence and became a criminal powerhouse. At a meeting with a rival gang, the Rose gets pinned by a squad of policeman. He tries to escape, but a rookie cop chases after him. In order to protect himself, the Rose shoots the cop, killing him. This was a ground breaking move to the Rose. At first he regrets the decision, since he never killed anyone innocent before. Lost in grief, the Rose disappears for a while. He confesses his crimes to a priest in hopes that he can get over his grief. In this confession, he reveals that Ned Leeds, Alfredo Morelli and himself started out as friends, planning Kingpins fall. Alfredo had plastic surgery on his face in order to look like Richard Fisk and pose as him. They knew Ned was the Hobgoblin and all their meetings and criminal affairs were just a show to make criminals think, that they were as bad as any of them.
Blood Rose
When Sergeant Blume was killed, Richard Fisk again took the mantle of Rose with the intention of killing Alfredo. But instead of using the name “Rose” however, he called himself Blood Rose due to his bloody mission. Richard arranged a meeting with Alfredo Morelli, while Alfredo still pretended to be Richard Fisk. At the meeting, Alfredo planned on killing the real Richard Fisk, but Spider-Man interfered. In the struggle Alfredo tried to escape, but Richard shot him in the back, causing Alfredo to fall into the Hudson River. Spider-Man dove in after him, but found no trace of Alfredo’s body.
After the meeting, Blood Rose continued his war against Fisk empire. When Foreigner tried to take over the Kingpin’s business and ordered a hit on Blood Rose. Richard confronts Foreigner, even though their battle was stopped by Spider-Man, Richard managed to escape.
In the final confrontation between the returned Alfredo and Richard Fisk, both men are captured and arrested, with their identities exposed to the police.
Underboss
Hitching his wagon to one last loser, Richard Fisk was flattered enough by the attentions of Sammy Silke to go along with his plan to assassinate the Kingpin. When it seemed they had been successful, Richard confessed his actions to his mother proclaiming that they could finally be free. She promptly shot him.
Clone Conspiracy
Later on down the line, Richard Fisk is seen restored to life by the Jackal along with other notorious Spider-Man villains in cloned bodies. He stays with the Jackal at New U Technologies along with the other clones in order to gain pills which keep their cellular degradation at bay due to a flaw in their cloning process. Later on, Spider-Man then tells Wilson Fisk about The Rose’s resurrection and convinces Fisk to give him a folder that allows him to track down the Jackal. Richard Fisk seemingly dies along with the other clones after Otto Octavius sent out a frequency that accelerated their decaying process.
Hell
Subsequently, Richard is later seen in Hell where he receives a high-ranking position along with other deceased villains. After hearing Johnny Blaze’s proposition to supersede Mephisto and usurp his throne, The Rose declines to aid him, not wanting to suffer Mephisto’s wrath if he were to fail. Richard does, however, supply intel and a map to help Johnny Blaze navigate his way Mephisto’s throne room.
Resurrection
Wilson Fisk undergoes a mission to collect both the Tablets of Life and Destiny & Death and Entropy respectively in a desperate attempt to resurrect his late wife Vanessa. However, Fisk comes to realize that Vanessa would never forgive him if he chose to resurrect her in particular. Wilson Fisk instead chooses to revive Richard in order to redeem himself of his sins, and to move on from Vanessa and continue with his life.
Alternate Versions
MAX
In this alternate reality, Richard was a nine years old child who had a loving relationship with his father, Wilson Fisk. Wilson would attempt to become the Kingpin of Crime and claim he was doing it for Richard. However, this was proven to be untrue when Fisk let Richard die at the hands of Dante Rigoletto.
Earth-92131
Ryker’s Island was called Rooker’s Island, a regular prison which wasn’t exclusively for super-villains. Both Richard Fisk and Tombstone were sent there for their respectable crimes. The two teamed up and Richard used his connections to frame Robbie Robertson for Tombstone and had him sent to Rooker’s instead. When they tried to escape Spider-Man saved Robbie and the other two were sent back to prison.
Other Media
Richard Fisk appears in Spider-Man The Animated Series, where he runs Fisktronics a front company for the Kingpin’s various criminal activities. He and his father set out to frame Peter Parker, by offering him a job at Fisktronics in appreciation for his saving his father from a previous attack by the Hobgoblin. However his plot is foiled by the meddling of Spider-Man and Daredevil, resulting in Richard being sent to a Federal prison for treason. Following his imprisonment he begins working with Tombstone, who protects him and in exchange helps his partner to frame Robbie Robertson. He then plots his escape alongside Tombstone, but this is stopped by the arrival of Spider-Man.